O

Stop Motion –  a dancer as filmmaker refrains from superfluous movement in a villa in Brittany, giving way to an individual as well as social state described by the French philosopher Paul Virilio as "polar inertia". Frame by frame by frame, Paul Wenninger makes the rounds standing still, in an initially completely empty salon, with his back perpetually turned to the walls – and above all, to the windows: A stormy time seems to fly by while the relationship between outside and inside gets shaken up, even if the views "out" granted to the observer largely consist of projections: trees, beaches, parks shot in high-speed, time-lapse mode. If one repeatedly watches O as a loop, it emerges as one of those works in which the various "bodies" found in Wenninger's forms of artmaking – choreography, installation, animation – are very compactly merged. This is pivotal because here everything indeed revolves around Wenninger himself, as he inertly stands at high speed in red sneakers to minimalistic rocking music by Peter Jakober, with the timeless elegance of a New Wave star from the late 1980s: Self-portrait with a spin! Chairs and other furniture briefly thunder across the floor, but someone like Wenninger does not take a seat. In a quick-witted contemporary sense, O is also a thoroughly old-fashioned clip. One briefly ponders whether the letter "O" is not instead a zero value in the coordinate system, which in permanent spin transforms into a round bubble in midst of which the time/space continuum takes pause. Indeed, one thinks a lot this (Covid-19) year, and this here is but a brief text about a film that will preoccupy for a long time to come. (Claus Philipp)

Translation: Eve Heller

Orig. Title
O
Year
2021
Countries
Austria, France
Duration
5 min 38 sec
Director
Paul Wenninger
Category
Animation
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
O_01 (Image)
O_02 (Image)
O_03 (Image)
Credits
Director
Paul Wenninger
Cinematography
Paul Wenninger
Music
Peter Jakober
Editing
Michael Derrossett
Animation
Paul Wenninger
Production
Paul Wenninger, Kabinett ad Co
Actor/Actress
Paul Wenninger
Compositing
Michael Derrossett
Lighting
Paul Wenninger
Sound Effects
Michael Derrossett
Foley
Peter Jakober
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,85
Sound Format
5.1 surround
Frame Rate
24 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Festivals (Selection)
2021
Oberhausen - Int. Kurzfilmtage
Paris - L'Etrange Festival
Genève - Animatou Festival Int. du film d´animation
Ottawa - Animation Film Festival
Bueu - FICBUEU International Short Film Festival
Bagheria / IT - Animaphix Festival
Pejë - Anibar Animation Festival
Fantoche - Animationsfilmfestival Baden
Tel Aviv - Animix Int. AnimationFestival
Palic - Festival of European Film
Prizren - DokuFest, International Documentary and Short Film Festival
Wien - VIS Vienna Shorts
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Annecy - Festival Int. du Cinema d'Animation
Best Austrian Animation Film Festival
2022
Praha - Anifilm
Aix-en-Provence - Festival Tous Courts
Vilnius - Tindirindis International Animated Film Festival
Helsinki - Animatricks
Zagreb – Animafest, Festival on Animated Films
Prague - Young Film Fest
Praha - Anifilm
Jerusalem - AniNation International Animation Film Festival
Seattle - Int. Film Festival
Lissabon - Monstra Festival of Animated Films
Dresden - Filmfest
North Hollywood - GLAS Animation Film Festival
2023
New York - Monticello Park Film Festival